Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu imposed a temporary media ban on the coverage of the ongoing crisis in Istanbul, where a prosecutor had been taken hostage earlier on Tuesday.

Armed men, claiming to be from the banned leftist group DHKP-C, seized public prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz in a courthouse in Istanbul.

Kiraz was working on the case of Berkin Elvan, who died in March 2014 after he had been fatally injured in the 2013 Gezi Park protests and spent 269 days in coma.

The media ban is in line with emergency security legislation in cases when national security is threatened, Anadolu news agency reports.

Security forces stormed the courthouse and shots have been heard, but it remains unclear whether there are any injuries.

The abductors, who seek justice for the murderers of Berkin Elvan, said that they are to kill the prosecutor unless their demands are fulfilled.

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, shortened to DHKP-C, is a banned Marxist-Leninist group, which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the USA.

DHKP-C, which was founded in 1978, has claimed responsibility for conducting several assassinations and suicide bombings.

The most recent act of violence was carried out in January, when a female suicide bomber blew herself up and killed one police officer.

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